The Future
Distributed by Match Factory
Directed by Miranda Joy
Like many films that start with a talking cat, The Future is definitely about maturation, despite the fact that the main characters are well into their 30s.
Sophie (director and screenwriter Miranda July) and Jason (Hamish Linklater) are a self consciously bohemian couple who share matching unruly mop-tops, Macbooks, and commitment issues.After being together for four years, neither can commit to getting married or having children. While they both want those things, they cannot adequately communicate their feelings or feel accomplished enough to decide on anything permanent.
As a consolation, they decide to adopt a cat together, but even this decision belies their immaturity, as they have been told that the cat they chose, Paw Paw, will die soon.
Panicked, they decide to treat the end of their looming cat ownership as a death sentence. They resolve to spend their last 30 days accomplishing all the vague and exciting things that quirky movie hipsters aspire to do: saving the environment one tree at a time, making friends with wise old men who write raunchy love poems and becoming famous on YouTube.
Although the film begins with the couple almost melted into one on the couch, this 30 days sets them on diverging paths. In an early scene, they have a conversation about superpowers, which later becomes prophetic. She wanted the power to move things around her without moving herself and as the film moves forward, she makes attempts at a more conventional life.
In the same vein, Jason, who wanted the power to freeze time, spends most of the film wishing to create some sort of stasis. As their relationship deteriorates, Jason tries desperately to freeze it in time and is briefly able to do just that.
Mixed in with the reality of the film are whimsical touches that often come off as unfortunately twee, such as the meaningful conversation Jason has with the moon and a T-shirt that moves across town on its own.
Paw Paw also appears periodically to tell tragic tales of his life waiting for his new owners to come claim him. These segments are among the film’s biggest flaws as Paw Paw’s childlike voice quickly grows grating and his sentiments don’t mix fluidly into the film’s surface story or the greater implications behind it.
Too much of the film seems to be calculated and it appears too aware of its own quirkiness to be truly effecting. The film isn’t sure whether it wants to be an indie romantic comedy or a modern fairy tale and as a result, hovers uncomfortably between them.
Despite its flaws, The Future is an imaginative film with effective cinematography, moments of well-timed humour and a perfectly suited soundtrack that occasionally succeeds in being enchanting. It’s a film that will definitely polarize audiences, as the same reasons some will hate it are why others will love it.
